


Meet me where the sky touches the sea

by fyrefly



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: AU, Bird Tony, Friends to Lovers, FrostIron - Freeform, Frostiron Reverse Bang 2017, M/M, Merman Loki, Minor Violence, Pre-technology societies, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-18 23:10:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10627095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fyrefly/pseuds/fyrefly
Summary: A young prince of the northern merfolk finds himself at odds with his people over his strange magical talents.  Meanwhile, an outcast of the aerfolk has dreams of his own.  The two might have stayed in their own solitary spheres forever, had not fate intervened...





	

The World was not a safe place.  This was one of the first truths known to the children of the merfolk, a harsh truth that often followed in the wake of a small set of fins carrying the owner too far, or a lost toy, or, thankfully less often, a lost family member.  In their fortress they were safe, in the endless caverns worn into the rock by centuries of fish and tides.  But in the deep open water, predators.  Above, when head broke through the water to Above The World, there were beasts with wings that would strike at fish and merfolk alike, screaming for blood.

These merfolk of the north at learned the lesson better than most, here where the water was cold and the dangers many, and most taught to fight with spear or club when they were old enough to lift one.  The princes had seen other merfolk, ones who came with sea-flowers in their hair and pearls around their necks, cowed and frightened and begging for help from the northern warriors to drive off whatever monster had attacked them.

Thor and Loki liked the times when those visitors came the best.  It was tiresome seeing the same faces day after day and when a stranger came, that would signal time for the warriors to leave.  They would beg to join them, be told they were too young, and then, if the threat was great enough to warrant King Odin himself interfering, they would play at war themselves in the throne room in his absence, an endless cycle of coronations and coups in accordance with whomever was perched on the top of the throne.

Thor, being a few years older and a good deal larger, was the first to leave the palace caves for his first hunting expedition.  He brought back a giant fish with teeth as long as his younger brother’s hand to show to him.  Loki was delighted and Thor let him keep the teeth to fashion a set of knives.

But there was only so much target practice one could do at home while his brother was away being useful.  The tunnels under the palace were numerous and soon the younger prince took to exploring.  He found places where the water was so cold his skin turned blue and he could make tiny ice crystals off of his fingertips and watch as they broke off and sunk to the ground.  Loki ventured deeper, until the ice spread from his fingertips up his hand and forearms, and found with practice, he could change the form of the ice, to blades and arrows instead of a shimmer of frost motes.

He asked his mother about it.  The queen told him about Magic, that it was a weapon in and of itself, wielded by few.  She wouldn’t go down to to the frozen caves with him lest they be followed, but told to practice in secret, that when he could fully control it he might be able to use it in battle.

From that moment on he was in the caves every day, starting in the coldest depths and working himself a little higher each day, trying to call the ice from inside of his flesh rather than just in the water surrounding him.  His progress was rapid, but soon the other merfolk his own age began to think him strange and whispered to each other about what the younger prince could possibly be up to, training for so long all alone.

One day he found a new tunnel, this one sloping upwards instead of further down, and, feeling confident, he thought he might follow it.  It was narrow and twisted, and Loki supposed that must be some advantage to still being so small; there was no way his brother would have fit.  The tunnel opened to the sea floor; craning his head back he could just see sunlight twinkling above him through the water’s surface.

He felt a sensation tugging in the back of his head suddenly - the way the ice felt around his fingers but somehow pulling at him elsewhere.  Curious, he followed the sensation until he came upon a large toothy eel glaring at him from inside of his hole.

“Hello,” Loki ventured, feeling rather foolish for speaking with an eel.

 _IntruderTerritoryWhy_ , Loki felt the string of words and feelings coming from the creature as fast and intrusively as being stuck on the head and he instinctively backbeat with his tail away from the eel at first before he realized what he’d done.

“I didn’t know you could talk,” he finally replied, venturing closer again.

_YouTalk.  Loud._

“Sorry,” Loki said, quieter.  “I was just exploring, I’m not trying to take anything from you.”

The glare remained, but at least the eel’s voice wasn’t as hostile.

_MyPlace. MyCave._

“Of course, I’ll be going.  But before I go, would you mind telling me if… well, can I speak with others like this?”

 _Others like talk.  NoTalk.  Goodbye._

Thinking the better of returning to the palace through the front door and needing to account for where he’d been outside, Loki worked his way back through the tunnels and retired to his chambers.  So he could not only control ice but also communicate with creatures?

The hippocampus that pulled their chariots were all too happy to speak when he went down to the stables later.  It was almost headache inducing trying to sort through the happy whinnies and thoughts pounding into his head from all directions; they were delighted to have someone who could speak directly with them and it was quite some time before Loki was able to extract himself, and even then it was only after a very thorough explanation of why sweets could not be served at all meals and multiple promises to visit again the next day.

His daily practice expanded, from learning to call his ice in warmer and warmer water to now speaking to every creature he could find.  Some were much like the eel: taciturn, unsociable, and generally desirous to be left alone.  But many others were happy to find someone to talk to and would gossip with him about weather, monsters, and the best place to find pretty rocks.

So it went, months of study and improvement.  He developed his reputation as an eccentric, a loner, as different from his boisterous brother as it was possible to be.  It was impossible not to notice, and it hurt, but what was to be done?  He was already different, if he provided proof that not only was he stranger than everyone now thought, but that he had no control over his powers, what would they think?  No, better to wait and hope to win them back somehow.

One morning, Loki was overseeing the harness of a pair of hippocampus foals to a training chariot, murmuring soothing words to them and promising that it was only training, that there was nothing to be afraid of.  If the hostler rolled his eyes and whispered to his assistant that the young prince was projecting too much personality onto the creatures, Loki paid him no mind.  He took the reins and guided the skittish foals towards the mouth of the cave that led to their training yard.  The prince was just reaching the open water when he heard the alarm and saw the young sea serpent.  Loki dropped the reins and had his hands up before he even realized what was happening.

The serpent lunged.  Loki called up thoughts of dark tunnels and ice, involuntarily shutting his eyes.

When they opened again the serpent was frozen to the cave wall, the chariot to the wall opposite, and the hostler was furiously trying to bash through an ice wall behind him to reach them.

 

\---

 

“Your powers are a gift, but you are wanting control,” Odin told him some time later, after the hippocampus had been freed and he’d been rushed to the throne room under guard.

“I’ve been practicing, Father,” Loki replied, hands twisting together behind his back in attempt to calm his nerves.  “I didn’t mean for it to happen, I’ve never made that much before.”

Odin studied his younger son with a frown from atop the tall throne.

“You’ve used it as a weapon?”

“Sometimes.  It’s easier to throw but if the water is very cold I can make a spear until it breaks.”

“Does the water need to be cold?”

“Not anymore.  But it’s harder to call the ice if I’m not cold.”

“We can’t risk it happening again in such crowded quarters as these.  I’m sending you south to a place you can train in seclusion.  If you can control the ice there, then you should be able to call it at will here and you can join your brother in our hunting parties.”

Loki opened his mouth to protest - his home was here, everyone he knew was here…

On the other hand people whispered, thought him strange.  Would it be so bad to practice on his own terms, without hiding from anybody?  His father was right, if he could make ice in the warm southern waters he would have no trouble controlling it as he liked here.  And there was bound to be some new creatures to find and talk to...

“Yes Father.”

 

\---

 

A small guard force escorted him to an island, warm and lush and unlike anything Loki had ever seen before.  The water was shallow around the island, covered in strange forms the guards called _coral_ and thousands of fish he had never seen.  When he ventured up to the surface he saw lazy birds circling in the sky above him, occasionally diving for fish, no sign of the terrifying monsters of Above.  The island was white sand and smooth stones, not jagged rock, and he could see strange green things waving in the breeze in the distance.  In an instant he understood how the southern merfolk had no notion of how to defend themselves if it was this peaceful for nearly all their lives.

The guards left him with promises to check back on him soon, and Loki very quickly settled into a routine.  Calling the ice was harder than ever and it felt almost like starting from scratch, but he was determined to manage it.  Despite the safer waters he still practiced with knife and spear.  He had no shortage of companionship if he wanted it, fish, clams, dolphins, sharks - everyone wanted to investigate this new presence around their island.  He learned the tides, when he could be brave and crawl up onto the land to converse with starfish and ask the sea urchins how they made poisons before the waves carried him back out into deeper water.

Every day might have continued like that, in comfortable studious solitude, had Tony not fallen from the sky the next day.

 

\---

 

It was mid-afternoon and Loki was stretched out on the rocks, enjoying the strange new sensation of the warm sun on his scales and methodically grinding up urchin spines with a mortar and pestle.  The locals had graciously donated their shed spines and he had a mind to see if he could impregnate knife tips with poison.  Stone wouldn’t do but if he could find something porous yet hard that would serve as a blade he might be able to make it work.

By now he paid no mind to the shadows of sea bird passing overhead.  They were nothing on the flying monsters of the north and the worst that might happen was a seagull trying to make off with something shiny he was working on.  The shadow, therefore, was unremarkable.  The splash was unremarkable too, if large.

The scream was not.

Loki turned just in time to get a vague impression of feathers and a hand grasping skyward before it disappeared once more beneath the waves.  He waited.  Whatever it was didn’t surface again.  He dropped his poisons and dove, tail beating hard to carry him to the place where the hand went under.

It was a strange creature with a face and chest like his own but far too many limbs and large dark feathered wings that hung useless and heavy, tugging it further out with the current.  Loki had never before seen it’s like.  He tentatively reached out to feel a wing, expecting a reaction of some kind but the strange creature was floating motionless, eyes shut.

Birds always resurfaced to breathe.  Maybe this bird creature needed air to breathe as well?

It took the young merman longer than he would have liked to get a good grip on the other but by dint of hard work he managed to get them both out of the rip current and into the path of waves that carried them quickly to wash up on the sandy beach.  Loki rolled him over onto his back and leaned in, looking closely for any sign of life.

Said sign of life came with a monstrous hack of salt water right into Loki’s face before the creature rolled over and began coughing.

“Ugh!”  Loki jerked back, scrambling further away as well as he could manage on dry land.  He got down far enough to the water line to splash some fresh sea water on his face before his companion spoke.

“Hey.  You pulled me out of the water.”

Loki looked around.  The creature had sat up, folding his legs under himself while the wings flowed away behind him like a mantle.  He had tanner skin than Loki had ever seen on a merfolk, and dark eyes and hair.  He was smiling.

“You can talk like me,” was the cautious reply.  Weeks of being the only creature speaking allowed had taken their toll.

“Of course I can talk.  What are you?  You’ve got a fish tail so I guess you must live in the water.  I’ve never seen one before!”

“Fish wave their tails side to side.  Mine goes up and down, it’s far closer to a dolphin tail.  Why do you have wings?”

“Dolphin tail, fine, whatever but _you live underwater that’s nuts!”_ he was drawing closer, smile widened by now into a wide grin.  Loki shifted himself further back towards the ocean, entirely unsure what to make of this one.

“No no no don’t run away please!  Look okay I’ll stay here and I totally wasn’t going to look at your tail which is awesome by the way.  Okay, start over.  My name is Tony.  I’m of the aerfolk and thank you so much for saving my life.”  He stuck out a hand.

That much at least Loki recognized and reached forward to grip Tony’s elbow.  The other looked a little surprised but quickly returned the gesture. 

“I am Loki of the northern merfolk.  Are there many of your aerfolk?  I thought the only things that lived above the water were animals and monsters.”

“We nest up in mountains and cliffs mostly but there’s a fair number of us.  I guess if your people don’t have a reason to come up here then it’s no surprise I’ve never seen anything like you.”

Tony was leaning in, cocking his head as he studied Loki’s tail.   His own wings, when they were dried and caught the sunlight just so, had a metallic bronze sheen to the feathers but the blue and greens of the merman’s scales and fins _shimmered_ like nothing he’d ever seen before.

“Staring is rude,” commented the owner of the tail, dryly.

“Yeah okay, sorry,” Tony replied automatically.  He was still staring.

Loki rolled his eyes and winced then, the immediate question of whether or not his companion was alive now being replaced by the fact that the sun was hot and the tide line was receding more rapidly than he’d like.  He braced himself with his arms and pushed back, trying to at least get his tail fin back into the waves.

“Oh hey let me help.  Can you not be out of the water long?”  Tony stood up and made to grab Loki’s tail before hesitating.  “Is it okay if I grab this?  I’m not sure I can carry you but then you won’t be dragging all the way.”  Loki nodded and with a bit of shuffling they got him resituated with his lower half comfortably situated in the path of the breaking waves.  Tony sat back down in front of him, a bit further up the beach.

“I never went above the water before coming here,” Loki explained.  “It’s different.  Interesting, but it starts to make me feel itchy and sore if I’m out too long.  It’s fine if my fin is under.  I usually don’t go up so far.”

“Well usually you aren’t saving people’s lives.”

“You clearly can’t swim, so why did you dive in the water?” 

One wing came up then and hid Tony’s face while he scratched his head in a gesture that reminded Loki very much of his brother when he’d done something foolish.

“Well I was watching the birds do it, they sort of swoop in fast and come out with fish before they get too wet.  And I need oysters.”

Loki raised an eyebrow.  “Whyever would you need oysters so badly that you were willing to risk dying for them?”

“Hey I didn’t think I was going to die I just...miscalculated.  It happens, gotta run sometimes before you can walk you kn… hm.  You know what? Forget it.  There’s no way that metaphor is working with you.”

Loki raised the other eyebrow, still waiting expectantly for an answer to his question.  Tony sighed.

“So I’ve been doing some experimenting lately.  There’s a volcano an easy flight from my roost and I discovered if I put ores near the lava flow I can pull the metal out and it’s _soft_.  Like I don’t need to find whole nuggets of anything and work around that, I can just pull it out of the rock and when it’s soft I can make it into any shape I want!”

“What do you want with soft metal?”  Loki had seen metal, glittering deposits deep in the rock that were too hard for any tool to break.  His mother had a beautiful one in her private chamber, all swirling lines traversing the long wall like seafoam. 

“I could make weapons, shape it into points instead of hoping I find something in the shape I already need.  Make armor, jewelry, tools, anything I needed!”

“A metal knife wouldn’t break so easily as a stone one,” Loki conceded with a shrug.  On that point the idea did have merit.  “But how are oysters involved?”

“The best ores aren’t on my roost.  And the aerfolk that own them want trade.  There’s too many in their clan, they can get anything from land or air they want so I thought - pearls.  I saw one once.  My mother had a necklace with one in it and she said they came from oysters but you have to go in the sea to get them.  If I had pearls I could trade for all the ore I want.”

“And that’s why you almost drowned yourself,” Loki finished for him, dryly.

“It’s a worthy cause,” Tony retorted, pouting.

“Is that what your people do?  Shape metal?”

“Not at all.  They hunt and claim territory and fight over it a lot and stop giant eagles from raiding our nests… none of them want anything to do with something new.”

“That seems to describe my people as well, though we have sea monsters over your eagles.  But I think they accept new things if they are useful.”

“Is that why you’re here?”

“Pardon?”

“You said you’re of the northern merfolk but you’re by yourself on a tropical island.  So you’re off working on something of your own just like me.  What is it?”

Loki hesitated.  He wasn’t ashamed of his gifts but they weren’t something he was willing to parade about before a stranger.

Tony picked up on it.  “Hey it’s fine, it’s not my business anyway if you don’t want to share.”

The merman didn’t respond to that question and instead pointed to some rocks further down the coast.  “Meet me there,” he said, and then pushed off into the waves.

“HEY!” Tony shouted, making a clumsy grab for his fin as it flicked away into the depths. “Wait!  What are you doing?” but Loki was gone and the aerman’s cries were muffled by the waves.

The oyster bed was nearby, to be sure, but it was nowhere near where Tony has been diving.  Loki knew how to get a pearl from an oyster the proper way - the shellfish were good to eat and his mother and her ladies favored ropes of pearls in their hair and around their throats.  But now he wondered if in this case there was another way.

He reached the bed and lay down on the sea floor near the shells, whispering to them,

“Is there a way for me to have the pearl without hurting you?”

 _Itchy.  Sore.  Take them._  Came the reply, and dozens of shells peeked open just barely, so that with careful fingers Loki could extract the gleaming orbs within.

“Thank you.”

_Come back after many tides.  Take more._

He gave a bow of thanks and with a single powerful stroke of his tail made for the surface.  Loki was met with the sight of an irritated-looking Tony, hunched over the rock but looking in the opposite direction.

“Where did he go…” he was muttering to himself.

“Behind you,” came Loki’s reply.  Tony whirled around.

“Hey, I thought you’d...well I mean I guess it’s your island but I thought maybe you left.”

“No…?”

Tony was visibly relieved. “Well they say I talk too much sometimes about things nobody cares about so I thought maybe you were escaping.”

Loki gave him a look that plainly said he was an idiot and held out his hands.  “I was getting you your pearls so you don’t take it into your head to drown yourself again.”

Tony gaped.  “ _All_ of these?” he whispered.  “I thought one or two would do, what would I do with all of these?”

“Keep them, trade for more later?  It doesn’t matter what you do,” Loki shrugged.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.  I can always get more and nothing I do has need for pearls.”

Tony looked up from the pearls then, giving Loki an appraising look.

“You just made it possible for me to do anything I want.  That’s not nothing.  I’m going to put these somewhere safe and then when I’ve made something I’m coming back here and showing you, okay?  And then I’ll make you something too.  Because that’s what friends do.”

Loki paddled back a bit, taken aback.  “Friends?”

“Yeah!” the affirmation was paired with a broad grin.  “Friends help each other and you just helped me a bunch so we’re friends.”

“I’m not sure I’ve had a friend before.  Just my brother.”

“That’s fine, we can be friends now.  Here, just…” Tony grabbed a small bag he’d been wearing and carefully scooped the pearls inside.  Then he grabbed Loki’s now free hand and shook it.

“We use handshakes to seal bargains where I come from.  Will you be here when I come back?”

Loki almost said it wasn’t certain, that his father could send messengers back at any time… but then wasn’t it up to him when he returned home?  Even if he’d mastered the ice by the time they returned he could always say he needed more time.  Surely that would be fine.

“I’ll be here.”

“Great!  I’ll see you before the moon turns, I promise.” And with that, Tony beat his enormous wings and took off into the sky.  Loki lay back in the water and watched him rise upwards, further and further until he was lost from sight entirely.

 

\---

 

The problem with trying to find somebody who lived in the water, Tony realized some weeks later, was that from up here it was impossible to see them.  He was on top of the world, wearing a hammered breastplate that _he’d made himself_ and there were still _loads_ of pearls left.  He could make an entire suit of armor if he wanted! Well, once he built up the muscles in his wings a bit more to take the weight.  But that was a detail for later.  He needed to find Loki.

Now, rocks.  Rocks could work.

Tony swooped down to the rocky coastline and grabbed a handful of pebbles and began throwing them.  Loki had to be in some deeper crevasse or underwater cave - there’s no way he would have left.  One by one, Tony tossed the pebbles into the water as he slowly zigzagged his way down the coast.

After about ten minutes he was starting to think this plan wasn’t going to work when a familiar head popped out of the waves and glared up at him.

“Why are you throwing rocks onto my bed?”

“You’d get mad at me if I tried to swim again.  And I can’t see you from up here.”

The face below him lost the scowl and broke into a smile.  “Come down here then.”

Tony alighted on a nearby rock and settled himself down comfortably while Loki hauled his upper body up next to him to rest with his tail still mostly submerged.  He reached out a hand to touch Tony’s breastplate.

“I wasn’t sure when you’d come back,” he said quietly.  “But I’m glad your experiment went well.”

“Hey, I said I’d be back, right?  You can trust me.”

Loki gave him a sideways look then, pursing his lips as though deep in thought.  After a few long moments he reached down and scooped up a handful of water, letting it drip out of his fingers between them.  As each drop left his hand it froze solid and shattered on the rock beneath.

“This is why I’m here.  To control this.”

“Woah.” Tony leaned in closer, transfixed by the frozen drops.  He’d never heard of anything like it.  Changing water without it being winter or using fire?  It had to be impossible.  “I’ve never seen anything like it.  How do you do it?”

“Mother told me it’s Magic.  Apparently it surfaces in our people every so often.  But we live in cramped quarters and I accidentally froze our stable when we were caught off guard by a sea serpent.”

“Yeah but you can control it now, right?  So what if you made a few mistakes?  That’s all part of learning!”

Loki blinked, confused.  “I suppose that’s true.  And it will be useful for hunting, once I can fashion spears again.”

“Again?”

“It’s more difficult in warm weather.”

“Ah...okay but is it fun?  You’re in exile to learn this thing, you want to learn it right?  Not just because someone told you to?”

That lead to another pause.  “It’s not really exile.  It’s peaceful here and I don’t need to justify myself to anyone.”

Tony wasn’t sure if ‘anyone’ included him or not and decided maybe it was best to let that drop.  He got the feeling that the fact that Loki showed him the ice at all was probably a really big deal.

“Thanks again for the pearls,” he finally said, switching gears abruptly.  “I still have a stash of them and a bunch of ore I haven’t even shaped yet but once I got this done I wanted to show you.”

Loki nodded at the breastplate.  “It’s lightweight.  I suppose with your wings back there it would be hard for anything to get its jaws around you now.”

Wait, did that _happen_ underwater? Creatures with jaws big enough to surround someone?

“I’m usually worried about being pecked or clawed but thanks for making me grateful I don’t have to worry about being bit in two.”

The other shrugged.  “Those are the ones you try to kill from far away.”

“Did you think I was a monster at first?  When you saved me?”

“Half your body looks like mine, so no.  I was confused more than anything else and it took me a while to realize you couldn’t breathe.”

“How do you breathe underwater, anyway?”

Loki lifted his hair to the side, showing a row of skin flaps in his neck.  “These.  Fish and sharks have them too.  But I can breathe like you when I’m out of the water.”

Tony considered that for a moment.  It seemed like in most things they were the same, only Loki had a way to survive underwater and he could move easily through the sky.

“I eat fish so I think we should be able to eat the same food, right?”

“Probably…” Loki looked to be on the verge of asking why Tony wanted to know but he cut him off.

“Hang tight.  I’m going to get you a coconut.”

Ignoring Loki’s protests and questions, Tony took off again and made for the groves of palm trees swaying in the breeze further inland.  This time of year they were heavily laden and it was the work of a moment to twist a ripe one of off the tree.  He flew back to a curious merman and using his knife quickly hacked the nut in two and handed half to Loki.

“Drink the milk then you can eat the meat along in the inside.”

Loki took a sip, tentative at first then began to eat the coconut with gusto.  “It’s good!” he exclaimed.  “Where does it come from?”

Tony pointed.  “Those trees inland with the leaves clustered at the top?  These are their seeds.  We pick them there.”

“We have some plants but nothing like this,” Loki sighed.  “If only they grew closer to the water’s edge.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Tony grinned.  I can come here all the time and get you as many coconuts as you want!”

“Truly?  You’re staying here?”

“Sure!  It took me a while to figure out the metalworking is all.  It’s not that far from my roost to here.  If you want me to stop by, that is.  I can come every day.”

“I’d like that a lot.  It’s nice to have someone to talk to.”

 

\---

 

Days seemed to go by quicker then, as they always do when one has a friend to help pass the time.  Tony worked his in forge and frequently carried pieces to the island for Loki’s inspection.  Loki practiced diligently with his ice, throwing blades of it, creating crushing columns from his palms, and turning the breaking waves into showers of snow for Tony’s amusement.  They talked of smithing, and with some experimenting back and forth on both of their parts they found that plunging Tony’s creations into saltwater made them harder.

Tony asked once, after many weeks, how Loki had gotten the pearls.  The merman replied that the oysters had given them to him.  The way he said it, without looking at him and almost too casually, made Tony wonder if this was another thing that most of his people didn’t do.  He didn’t ask again but when a pod of dolphins came near the island and Loki excitedly swam out to meet them and hear the latest gossip, he devoured every bit of news relayed to him afterwards with enthusiasm.

Loki experimented with poisons and paints, weaving nets and making jewelry with all of the strange new materials Tony could bring him from the land.  In return Loki dove deep, bringing him back fish with pigments that could make his creations glow in the night, and enough long fangs to fashion claw traps for smaller game.

They shared stories, both real and legendary, from their respective societies.  They explored the island, Loki bringing news of caves under the waves while Tony brought curiosities from inland. At night, they lay side by side on the beach, arguing over the names of constellations and inventing new ones that pleased them both.

 

\---

 

One morning, Tony had just barely reached their usual meeting place when a pair of hands burst from the waves and dragged his head down nearly to the water level.  Loki was there, wide-eyed and shaken.

“My father’s messengers are here.  They’re going to take me back home tomorrow.”

“That’s good...isn’t it?  That’s what you wanted?  To learn your Magic and then go back home to be a prince and a hunter and all that?”

“My brother’s a prince and a hunter.”

“Then what are you?”

Loki looked stricken.  “I don’t know.  I never had to think about it before.  It’s so much easier here, like letting out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.  They didn’t want to know about anything different up there, not unless I already knew how to control it and be useful.  There’s no experimenting.  It’s all the Old Way.”

“That’s what my home was like too.  That’s why I went off on my own.   You don’t have to go back if you don’t want to.  It could just be the two of us.”

“Where would we live?  We can’t share a home.”

“An island, like this one.  Or another one with a volcano for me and a reef for you.  We could have two caves right near each other.  If it’s not the island where I roost already we’ll look.  We’ll find a new one.”

Loki bit his lip, looking uncertain.  Then he abruptly propelled himself away from Tony as another merman surfaced and gave him a stern look.

“Highness, it’s not safe up here.  Please come back down.  We can gather provisions and be ready for the long trip home on the morrow.”

“Yes, I’ll be down directly.  This is a friend of mine, I’m in no danger here.” Loki replied, suddenly cold and formal.

Tony waited quietly until the intruder reluctantly dove again to join his fellows.  “I’m going to go back to my forge for the day, alright?  I’ll give you some time to think and I’ll be back this time tomorrow morning.”  He reached down and squeezed Loki’s shoulder.  “It’ll be alright.”

Loki gave a small nod in reply and Tony took off, mind already full of what he would have to do that day to finish the plan he had in mind.

 

\---

 

The next day, Loki surfaced to see Tony lounging on a rock, grinning and holding out to him the most beautiful weapon he’d ever seen in his life.  It was a long staff, topped by an elegantly curved blade in the shape of a crescent moon.  Loki gaped at it.

“But I’ve decided to go back.”

“I know,” Tony replied with a smile.  “You need to go back and see how you feel about living there, knowing what you can do now.  But it’s a long way back and I owe this much at least, for the pearls.  It’s long so you can kill things from far away.”

“Always a good plan, I should think.”  Loki reached out and Tony levered the weapon over.  It was heavier than he expected.

“It’s going to be too cumbersome on land but buoyant in the water.  I’ve been studying how you carve your knives and I’ve made some changes to the blade edge that I think will improve your speed.”

“Tony…” Loki began, stroking the weapon reverently, “this is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.  Truly.  It’s incredible.”

Tony grinned.  “I wanted you to have something to remember me by.”

“I won’t forget you.  Not ever.  And we’ll see each other again, I’m sure of it.”

The aerman’s smile was sad.  “I hope so.  Have a safe trip home.  You don’t want to keep your escort waiting.”

 

\---

 

After months of solitude followed by as much time again in Tony’s company, where he didn’t need to worry about how he appeared or what he said, travelling in the company of the royal escort Odin had sent was a bit of a culture shock.  His questions were met with confused looks, his requests with unquestioning obedience.  They were unfailingly polite but when they stopped each evening for a meal and rest it was obvious they preferred their own company.  Loki was a bit disappointed that Thor had not come, but maybe their father couldn’t spare him, or he was off on an expedition somewhere.  Surely they could reunite when he reached home.

All plans of a peaceful trip were dashed to pieces, within an hour’s swim from home.  They had to cross the Rift, a deep chasm of dark black water, the depths of which no one had ever explored and returned alive.  It was a known nesting ground for sea monsters and for that reason Odin kept constant patrols of the region so that any creature that dared climb up out of the Rift would be met with in force.  Loki was just holding up his hand to hail the first of the advance scouts that was just becoming visible in the gloom when an unearthly shriek rang out from the depths.

He immediately turned tail and began pumping his fin backwards.  Loki just barely gleaned an impression of row after row of teeth, glowing eyes, and fins that reminded him strangely of the winged dragons in Tony’s stories before the creature bit their forward scout in two.

“Go!” Loki roared at the patrolman just visible opposite the creature.  “Get a hunting party!”

The escort closed ranks around him, intent to do their duty and lay their own lives down for their prince.

“No, fan out!” Loki ordered.  “He’ll rip through all of us if we stay clustered!  Keep moving!”

His guard fanned back out and the group of them began ducking and weaving, taking hits where they could get them.  Loki began to call on the ice, thoughts of deep caverns and memories of frost patterns forming on his hands.  And he thought of Tony and making ice in the warm southern air, snowfalls and crystals for the aerman’s amusement.  The blue crept its way from his fingers up his arms and tiny ice fragments began to shed from his skin as he rapidly darted to and fro to avoid the monster’s claws.

He heard a scream and looked up just in time to see another of his guard shredded.  Loki let forth an arrow of ice from one hand towards the claw nearest to him and brought Tony’s spear around in a wide circle, slicing at the frozen place and earning a screech of pain.  He called out for his guards to focus on the frozen areas and began shooting bolts of ice as quickly as he could, peppering the creature with painful spots of freezing flesh that the others could take advantage of.  Loki swerved to avoid a flapping wing and drove his spear into the joint, sending the creature screaming and thrashing.  It became a horrible dance of ice and blood, pain and dodging, Loki no longer able to pay any heed to his guards in the face of the tremendous effort it took just to stay alive.

And some time later, he found himself staring down the beast’s jaws, utterly alone.  Both were shaking, both were bloodied and Loki could not begin to tell when his fellows had fallen.  There was no time.  The dragon lunged, and there were teeth.  So many teeth.  No time to flee.  He heard voices behind him but they were not going to be here in time.  He struck, left hand sending a column of pure ice before shifting behind his right’s grip on the spear, striking upwards with both hands as the mouth closed around him.  Upwards, upwards, cutting, cold, teeth.  He heard the scream as much as he felt it rattling in his bones, unsure if it was him or the dragon or both.

He realized that he wasn’t being actively bitten into countless pieces around the same time the entire world started to fall downwards.  The dragon’s blood was filling it’s mouth now, blinding Loki and making it hard to breathe as he tried to grope his way to the teeth, to pry his way out before the lifeless body carried him with it back into the Rift.  He brought the spear to bear again, wedging the point between two rows of fangs and twisting.  Suddenly there were hands reaching in, hands prying open the gap he created, grasping for him, pulling him out.

Shaking his head to disperse the blood, Loki found himself looking into the bright blue eyes of his brother.

“Loki,” he gasped.  “Ancestors bless, we feared we’d lost you.”

“My guards,” Loki replied, looking around, hoping somehow he’d missed one.  Thor shook his head.

“They fought valiantly.  But the honor of the day belongs to you, little brother.”

Loki stared at the corpse of the dragon, slowly drifting to the seabed.  “I was fortunate.”

“You were _strong_.  Father was right.  These months training on your own have done you a world of good.”  Thor clapped him hard on the shoulder.

“So it would seem,” Loki replied, giving the monster one last lingering look before letting Thor steer him in the direction of home.

 

\---

 

Loki had expected to see his mother and father and Thor if he was lucky.  No doubt some of the household staff would be pleased to see him but he rarely left the palace caves on Odin’s orders and he had not yet joined a hunting party so there were few outside of that small sphere he would consider himself known to.  So to be paraded down the main avenue at Thor’s side with their people cheering his return and throwing sea flowers was the absolute last thing he expected.

“Why all of this?” he murmured quietly to his brother as they proceeded between the crowds, mindful to keep a smile on his face as he waved.

“Everyone has been waiting for good news.  We’ve been hoping with time alone to train your...whatever that is, you’d turn out a formidable warrior.  And you’ve just killed a beast that has taken out three entire hunting parties since you’ve been gone.  What more reason do you need to celebrate?!”  Thor laughed and clapped him on the back again.

His reunion with his mother was more subdued.  She asked for a demonstration of the ice, then hugged him and kissed his forehead.  “I’m so very proud of you.  Now you need never part from any of us again.”

It was strange, being back in his own chamber after so many months.  His father had requested Loki attend him in the throne room but he had first begged leave to present himself properly.  He left Tony’s spear and his scores of knives, vials of poisons and his other supplies near his bed before going to work diligently scrubbing the blood off of his scales and out of his hair.  With a looking-glass for the first time in months he saw how long his hair had gotten.  He’d need to ask someone to trim it.  Staring at his own reflection, he wasn’t sure he’d changed all that much on the outside at all.  The Magic left no visible trace and he was still small compared to Thor and his father.  Still, that spear suited him, more than knives had.  Perhaps diligent use of that would build muscle.

His father was waiting for him in the throne room, and Loki had barely finished his bow before Odin swam down from the high throne to embrace him.

“You’ve returned to us but an hour and you’ve already slain a fearsome beast.  Well done.”

“Thank you.  It would seem my time away in solitary study has agreed with me.”

“That it has.  We will have a feast on the morrow and then see about you getting placed with a hunting party.  How did you kill the creature?  Our swords and spears broke apart on its hide.”

Loki swallowed, uncomfortable.  This was the crux of it, everything that had given him his slim edge in that fight was from his time away.  The reason he was sent away.  “The ice,” he began, slowly.  “I’ve been experimenting and when something is frozen, it’s easier to crack it with a sharp edge.”

Odin motioned for a servant at the door of the throne room.  “And you’ve made yourself a splendid weapon while you were away, I understand.  Please go and fetch the prince’s spear.”

“I can’t take credit for that, I’m afraid.”  Speaking of Tony was easier.  Craftsmanship was a topic anyone could relate to.  “I met someone from the aerfolk while I was in...studying in solitude.  We exchanged discoveries, compared fighting and weapon making techniques.  It was most instructive.”  Loki looked up and saw his father was frowning, not at him but at the weapon being carried in by the servant.  He intercepted it before it could be handed off to Odin, suddenly concerned about what would happen if he didn’t keep it in his possession.

“When the escort came to retrieve me, Tony - the aerman, he gave me this as a gift before we parted.  It’s marvelous and cut through the hide of that creature beautifully.”

“What was used to craft the blade?”

“Metal - Tony traded for the ores using pearls I gave him and formed it with heat from the earth.”

Odin’s expression closed off as quickly as a cloud over the sun.  “You must get rid of it, my son.”

“ _What?  Why?”_ Loki drifted backwards, tightening his hold on the spear.

“It is not our way to accept weapons as gifts, or to seek tools beyond the water.”

“If I could go on land I could have made it myself.  I helped Tony to get the materials, why does it matter if I forged the weapon or if he did?”

“The duty of a warrior is to create his own weapons, not rely on _borrowed strength_ ,” Odin almost spat out the words.

“If I didn’t have this _borrowed strength_ that creature would still be destroying your hunting parties!   You said yourself stone and bone blades shattered on its hide!”

“Be that as it may, this is not our way.”

“If we must adhere to tradition in all things, how are we supposed to better ourselves?”

“When you are king you can think on such matters and tell our people how they are to upend centuries of tradition.”

Loki laughed harshly.  “But I won’t be king, you have my brother for that.”

“Just so.  Magic users have cropped up here and there and when they have self control they are valuable warriors.  But that does not give you leave to defy our traditions in whatever way you like.  Now hand over the spear - it must be destroyed.”

“No.”

Odin’s eyes narrowed.  “I beg your pardon?”

“This was a gift from a dear friend and I will not have it destroyed.  I will not use weapons I know to be inferior and live my life as a tool for you to use as you see fit!”

“This is not to be borne.  I will not be spoken to by one of my sons this way!  I’m confining you to your room until you’ve come to your senses.”

Loki sneered.  “Exile again until I meet your expectations, Father?  I’ll do you one better.  I’m leaving.”

Odin started.  “What?”

“I won’t live my life on anyone’s terms but my own.  If that means defying your rules, then that’s what I’ll do.  And so I’m leaving.  Give my apologies at the feast - say whatever you like.”

Without waiting to be dismissed, Loki left the throne room, hand still clenched tightly around the spear.  How had he not seen it before?  The slavish adherence to tradition, the disdain for anything different, the backwards thinking… he was never going to fit in here.  Not then, and especially not now that he had tasted freedom.  He immediately made for his chambers, packing up what little he’d brought back from the island and adding a few small trinkets from his room to the bags.

“You two were shouting loud enough it’s a wonder the entire palace didn’t hear you,” Frigga remarked from his doorway.

Loki whirled around.  “Mother I-”

She shook her head.  “I understand.  It pains me but I understand.  We can’t all pass our days at home, never straying further from our thresholds.  You have a wild spirit.  I had a feeling someday it would be like this.”

“He’s so stubborn!  With a little change we would have nothing to fear!”

“What you want is too much for many people to take right now, dear one.  Change will come.  It may not be while I’m alive or even while you and Thor are alive, but it will come.  But it doesn’t follow that you must stay here shouting words that fall on deaf ears.”

Her son blinked fast, trying to put on a brave face.  How could he go from hero of the kingdom to fighting with his father to crying in front of his mother all in one day?

“I’m sorry.”

She drew him in again and if he wept then, she pretended not to notice.  “I have seen your destiny is beyond here.  You must go find it.  And perhaps one day if we are both very lucky, we’ll see each other again.”

 

\---

 

Loki didn’t waste much time after that, packing his satchels full of necessities, strapping the spear to his back and then making his way out through the back passages of the palace.  He was stopped at the end by Thor, who wordlessly handed him a bundle of food from the kitchens, a somber look on his face.

“I don’t understand,” he finally said after a moment.

“I know,” Loki sighed.

“We were to fight together as brothers.  I wanted you by my side.”

“I believe that but…” Loki trailed off, unsure how to put it into words.  “You care for me, and Mother cares for me but Father and the others...they don’t care about anything new.  They don’t care what I’ve learned, how I do it, what I could do to make our lives better.  They just see what _they_ want me to do. I think I didn’t mind so much before, all I wanted was to be useful.  But now that I’ve had a taste of living on my own terms, I can’t live like this.”

“Will you ever come back?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe.”

“I’ll miss you.  Send word that you’re alright.  You’ll find other merfolk, they’ll get word back.  And maybe one day…”

“Push Father.  Make him and the others think outside tradition, if you can.”

“I will.  And then you’ll visit and be proud of what we’ve done.”

Loki smiled.  “As if there was a day I was ever not proud of you.”  He clapped Thor on the shoulder - less forceful perhaps, than his brother, but no less heartfelt.

“Stay safe.”

“I will.”  And with that, Loki once again made for open water.

 

\---

 

It was easy enough to return to his island without an escort.  Having made the journey twice now he was familiar with safe places to spend the night, what areas were best to hunt for the days ahead, what stretches would leave him relying on his stores of food.  As the water began to grow brighter and warmer the further south he travelled, Loki felt as though a weight was drifting off of him, a weight he had not even noticed had settled on his shoulders on the last trip.  There was nothing expected of him.  He could live his life on his own terms.  He couldn’t wait to tell Tony.

The island was just as he had left it - he’d been gone barely a single cycle of the moon, after all.  But Tony was gone.  Loki supposed he shouldn’t be surprised - his roost was on another island, what use was it for him to come here with no one to visit?

Still, there was a chance Tony might come back.  Loki wanted to see him, to tell him that he’d been right and that the two of them should find a place just for themselves.  And so he waited.  He practiced with spear and knife and ice, hunted, collected more pearls for whenever the aerman might come back.  He went to their meeting place every morning, even though the starfish told him that the “large bird” hadn’t come back since the day he left.  He counted turns of the moon on the wall of his sleeping cave and one day he realized that he’d ticked off the tenth while barely heeding the passage of time.

“I could spend my entire life waiting,” he said to no one in particular.  These days there was never anyone.  “He doesn’t know I’ve left home.  I’m going to find him.”

He had very little to go on, but he knew Tony lived somewhere to the south and that he roosted near a volcano.  That was better than nothing and infinitely better than staying here in solitude for who knew how long.

It turned out that while it may have been simple for Tony to see the scattering of islands that dotted the vast ocean, it was a much more difficult task to find them from the water level.  He surfaced at night to orient himself with the stars where the currents failed him, and still it took days to find the next island.  No volcano.  No Tony.  Still, he was determined.

He wasn’t alone nearly as much as he expected.  One day he would travel with sea turtles and ask where they had seen more aerfolk.  Another evening he found a pod of dolphins who promised to tell all of their cousins that Loki was looking for an aerman with a metal chestplate and to get word to him when he was found.  He crossed an area infested with sea serpents in the company of a great white shark who wanted to reach safer hunting grounds on the terms that each would promise to help the other.  And when he had killed, with her help, five of the monsters he was found by the scouting party of a tribe of southern merfolk who welcomed him to stay with open arms.  Their chief knew Odin by name if not by sight and was honored to have both a northern prince and a serpant slayer at his table.

“You can stay with us as long as you like.  Learn from our scouts; they will teach you the surrounding ocean.”

“Do you know where any aerfolk live?  I need to find one.”

The chief replied that he did, but it was many weeks’ journey to reach them.  Loki took his advice.  He joined their scouting parties, ate at their table and flirted with their mermaids but before long he felt the urge to wander.

“I can’t stay here, I’m sorry.  I need to find him first and then I can decide what I’m to do.”

“We’ll take you as far as the reef’s end and point you on your way.  But you’re welcome to make your home here should you change your mind.”

 

\---

 

The aerfolk lived in homes on the cliffside over the ocean - indents in the sheer wall they had covered with curtains of woven grasses.  They had seen merfolk before, but both peoples tended to keep to themselves.  A younger merman waving them down to the surface, asking for help finding a particular one of their own - that was new.  None of them knew Tony but they did know of the Ring of Fire - volcanoes only spouted in very specific places in the ocean and Loki was drifting in the wrong direction.  They were happy to point him in the right direction and agreed to pass the word that a merman was looking for some madman who liked to shape metal.

 

\---

 

Loki had long stopped counting the turns of the moon when he met a mermaid out gathering coral who said, “We haven’t seen him but we’re having some difficulties with a sea serpent if you don’t mind helping us.”

And thus Loki learned his reputation preceded him - the warrior son of the north who could slay any monster and was embroiled in a mad quest to find a single aerman in all the vast skies of Above the World, all while he was trapped beneath the waves.

 

\---

 

He met an aermaid with a necklace of pearls about her throat.  She giggled when he asked who had given them to her but after some cajoling he found a lead to the ones who had originally traded Tony the ores.  Or information that would have been a lead had they not left those lands two years ago.  Had it been two years?  Three?  He couldn’t remember.  His hair was getting long again.  He slashed it short with his spear, not caring how it looked, and dwelt for six moon cycles in a dangerous part of the ocean where every day he struggled to find a safe place to eat and sleep after spending the day fighting for his life until his muscles ached and his skin was almost entirely blue.  Loki wasn’t sure what he was trying to prove.  He told himself Tony would have a better chance of finding him if he stayed in once place - but was Tony even looking?

He only left after finding a wounded baby dolphin one day and taking her back to her pod.  By the time the family was reunited he’d strayed far from the monsters, now bone tired and in desperate need of rest. Waving aside their offers of shelter he let himself be washed up on a beach just far enough to let the waves lap at his tail fine.  It was a new moon and the stars were out in force, studding the sky like millions of diamonds.  Loki lay there a long while, watching the constellations they had once named rotating overhead and wondering how long it had been since he’d put his head above water.

Loki never drifted underwater for that far again.  It was strange, that he somehow didn’t allow himself to lose hope.  He’d lost count of the times he’d almost died at the jaws of some creature, and from what he’d learned from Tony, the air had its own share of dangers.  Who was to say, from the perspective of the other, that either of them were even still alive?  Or if they were, he had no reason to think Tony would be looking for him, who so quickly returned to his people and barely even considered the possibility of their living together.  Of course he had wanted to, but at the time it had seemed so foreign, the idea of not doing what was expected of him.  And yet so easy to do in practice.

He’d drifted too far north when he’d lost himself to fighting - he could taste that now in the currents.  Southward again he swam, this time letting the circular current carry him back towards the Ring of Fire.  Even if it took this time as long again to find Tony, even if he never found him at all - this was purpose enough.  Seeing the world, meeting new tribes of his own people and Tony’s, being free to do as he liked.

 

\---

 

The air was sultry and hot on the morning Loki found himself exploring the shoreline of an island he hadn’t seen before.  The land’s edge was sheer rock cliffs and so far there was no sign of aerfolk - unusual as many seemed to like that type of landscape for their homes.  The air was too hazy to be able to tell if the shimmering in the sky was from a volcano or merely the heat rising off of some unseen jungle.  Loki shook his head a few times, trying to clear it.  Tony needed heat to work his ores, certainly, but this was oppressively hot.  He decided to give it a few more minutes but if much more of the coast proved to be the same, he would dive further down and continue south in the colder, deeper water near the sea bed.

He ducked his head underwater, taking a deep breath of cool fresh water over his gills, then slid back out of water to see what was coming into view around the next cliff.

Loki barely got an impression of hanging ropes and rotting fish before he was engulfed in a net of vines and his world began spinning him head over tail.  Luckily he managed to get one arm to where his spear was strapped on his back to free it and he began slashing wildly as he saw the ocean rapidly fading into the distance below him.  A few key links in the net were cut and he threw himself towards the weak place only to be met with another captor - he could see this one clearly now, a bastardization of an aerfolk, all wings and talons with sharp beak and eerily sentient eyes.  She rushed him with another net and with the aid of her fellows tangled him up even more thoroughly than before.  He struggled as best as he could out of water, trying to lash out with his tail, slash with the spear, anything.  There was no ice to be had here, no water but what was rapidly drying off of his skin.  The creatures hung the tangled mess of nets with him trapped fast inside it from a pole fastened to the cliff’s edge.

The one who had caught him at the end hovered at eye level.  “Now you stay there and if you’re nice and quiet we might eat you before you die on your own.”

Snarling, Loki slashed at her but his arm was caught from the elbow up in vines.  She dodged the spear easily and then struck at it with the full force of her talons, bending Loki’s arm the wrong way and forcing him to drop the weapon lest he break his arm.  It was long, so long, before he heard the splash.  He was never meant to be this high.

The winged creatures cackled at him, maybe laughing, he couldn’t say.  They flew off and he was left, alone and unarmed, tangled in a net at hopeless height over the ocean.

He wasn’t going to survive this, he knew.  The best he could hope for was to wriggle free and fall to his death before they came back and did who knew what to him.  But the net was cleverly made - it seemed like the more he struggled, the tighter he became trapped.

And it was hot.  So hot.  If only he’d dove moments earlier, or resurfaced further out...  He watched the glow of the sun cross the sky behind the haze of clouds overhead, long since past having the energy to fight.  Across the bay he could see an arm hanging from a similar net, mostly bone now.  His own folk or aerfolk?  Did it matter?  Not so long now for him, either.  His skin was long past the usual itching that came with being out of the water too long.  He felt sick, wrung out, like his entire body was on fire.

He heard the screams of his captors once more, and a flash of a bird diving from behind the sun.  Did silver birds come from the sun?  Was there a bird that could be born on rays of light and cross the sky each day?  Loki drifted on that thought for a while, then knew no more.

 

\---

 

Tony was on patrol.  Barely spending more than a few days each moon at his home roost, he flew in ever-widening arcs and island-hopped as far as he dared, always keeping his eyes on the ocean.  He’d gone back to the island where he’d met Loki once or twice, but never with any luck.  It wasn’t until nearly a year later that he began hearing rumors - just rumors but enough to give him hope.  He had the advantage of an aerial view but who knew how far Loki had gotten by then?  Tony had to make up for lost time.  But he also couldn’t lose his home to any intruders or all of his daydreams about having a place they could both live out their days would be for nothing.

Case in point, these harpies.  He didn’t mind them being half a day’s flight from his own roost but they were breeding fast, branching out and scouring the entire area for anything half resembling food.  They were going to pick everything clean and throw the islands into ruin.  That, and the last time he was this way he thought he’d seen an aerfolk in their nets.  If he could prove they were attacking sentient species for food, he could convince some of the local clans to join with him in bringing them down.

Grateful he’d brought his helmet today to mask the smell, Tony angled his wings for a pass down the seaside cliff where they kept their meat until it was whatever stage of rotten that harpies deemed suitable for eating.  It didn’t take long for his close inspection of the nets to be noticed, and he heard the war cries of a cluster of them as they tightened into an arrowhead formation to attack.

But he almost didn’t notice that.  Because there was an outstretched arm and part of a fin just peeking out through the netting.  A mix of blue and green, a fin he would know anywhere.

_No._

Clans be damned, politics be damned, three-to-one odds be damned.  Tony unsheathed blades from his arm guards and dove, throwing all his weight behind a two armed strike that cut the head cleanly from the first harpy’s body.  From then on it was so much mincemeat.  Their claws couldn’t so much as scratch him through the metal plating and their stone slings might as well have been throwing flowers.  He cut through them with single minded efficiency, even as more came to reinforce the initial trio, until he found himself overheated, gasping for breath, his body painted in blood as he whirled around mid-air looking for more foes that didn’t come.

He sped off to the net and began sawing away at the heavy vines.

“Loki,” he hissed.  “Come on Loki say something…”

With every vine his heart sank as more of the merman came into view.  It was Loki, and he wasn’t moving.  His skin was dry and crusted with salt and what he could make out of his gills behind a long curtain of black hair looked gaping and inflamed.

“Don’t do this, Loki.  You can’t die.  Not now.  Not after all this time.”  Tony shook his head violently, trying to shake tears from his eyes behind his helm.

He reached out a hand to press two fingers against the juncture of throat and chin.  Still a pulse, and this close he could detect a very faint breath.

“Okay, okay let’s get you out of here.”

There was once a time when all he’d managed was to half drag Loki across rough sand to the shoreline.  But they were neither of them boys anymore.  Loki had grown into a man, but then, so had he.  Even with the armor adding weight he was able to carefully extract him from the remaining vines.  The merman’s head lolled backwards against his arm; he was utterly insensible to all around him.

“Gotta get you in water,” Tony muttered.  But where?  The easiest thing would be to fly straight down but without knowing what lived in the sea around these parts, he could easily be dropping a vulnerable Loki to a different gruesome death.  There was no beach on this island, nothing where he could keep an eye on him safely.  There was nothing for it.  He had to fly and fly fast.

It was only minutes to the next island in the chain but each instant felt like Loki was being pulled closer and closer to death.

This island was little more than a sandbar with a few palm trees but it was good enough.  Tony dove to the shoreline and hovered to a somewhat awkward landing before wading into the ocean and gently laying Loki down in the water.  If he was hoping for a miracle, for Loki to miraculously come back to life the moment he hit the water (and in his heart of hearts, he was), it didn’t happen.  Working quickly, Tony discarded his blood-soaked armor and helm and tossed them up onto the beach.  Using one hand to stop Loki from drifting away, he used the other to alternately pour water over his face and smooth back his hair, encouraging water to flow freely over his gills.

Loki had always been so pale and now, having spent so much time away from their tropical island, he was even more so.  How pale did mermen get when they died?

“Loki, I’m sorry.  I’m so, so, sorry,” Tony choked out, unable to stop stroking his hair, his cheek, anything that might make him wake up.  “I didn’t know, I didn’t think.  I should have come back sooner.  I should have looked harder, I should have left earlier today.  Please don’t go.  I can’t do this without you, please don’t leave me.”

Tony leaned in, heart hammering in his throat, terrified to listen too closely for breathing but needing to all the same.

A cough.  A splash.  Loki’s head dropped under the water for just a moment and then popped back up, eyes wide and breath coming in great gulps.

“Tony,” he gasped, voice dry and hoarse.

The aerman choked back a sob and dropped to his knees to embrace the merman.

“Gods above I thought I’d lost you,”

Loki shakily brought his own arms around to hold the other in turn.  “I’ve thought much the same before now.  Though I suppose we’re even now.  I saved your life, you saved mind,” he smiled.

Tony tried to return the smile but it was shaky.  “I tried to find you, I swear.  As soon as I knew.  Everyone was telling me about the mad merman who was looking for the mad aerman who played with volcanoes.  We must have passed each other so many times and never known.”

Loki shifted in the water, bringing himself more upright but not bothering to lift his head from Tony’s chest.

“I left home almost as soon as I arrived.  They wanted me to give up your spear, go back to the old ways.”

Tony snorted.  Loki grinned.

“Precisely.  Though, I lost it in the fight with those creatures.  So perhaps I need to go back to the old ways now.”

“I don’t think so.  I’ve improved, you know.  I’ve discovered this new metal, I’m calling it Uru.  I’ve already made you a new spear out of it and you can have armor too if you want, I just wasn’t sure on the sizing so I told myself I’d wait until I saw you again.”

Loki looked up at him.  “I suppose I’ve changed, these past few years.”  He smiled and reached up to stroke Tony’s cheek.  “You grew a beard.”

“Yeah, it seemed like a good look for me,” Tony replied, then felt hesitant.  Did Loki like it?  Was it strange that he cared so much if Loki liked it.

Luckily, Loki smiled.  “It suits you.  But it seems I’m destined to retain my boyish looks.”

“Are you kidding?  You look like you could rip a dragon in two.  If I met you now and didn’t know you I’d be afraid to get closer.”

“Good thing you’re not afraid then.”  Loki’s eyes were so green.  Had he had this many eyelashes before?

“Good thing…”  Tony trailed off, utterly distracted.  “Um… do you remember what I said before?  That we could find a place and live together and not care what anyone thinks?”

That question was met with laughter.  “I should hope so.  It’s why I’ve been looking for you all this time.”

“Oh.  Okay.  Right.  Good.  But the thing is...um…”

“Yes…?” Loki prodded, starting to look concerned now.

“Please don’t be angry, I know we’ve only just met for the first time in forever and I don’t want to mess up any of our plans but I just… I just really want to kiss you right now and I’m not sure-”

He was cut off then when the hand that had been gently stroking his beard abruptly reached up to pull down his head and rough lips quickly claimed his own.  It tasted of salt and sun and blood and everything he hadn’t realized he was missing.  Loki moved back, to give them both air but Tony wasn’t having it, they’d both waited too long.  He kissed Loki, on the mouth, the forehead, anywhere he could reach, carding his fingers greedily through the merman’s long hair.

“Waited so long,” he murmured against Loki’s lips, only to be met with a quiet “Me too.”

“Never again.  I’m going to take you home with me and if you don’t like seabed there we’ll find something else.  I don’t care.  I never want to go a day without you again for the rest of my life.”

“Will you swear it?”

“I swear it.”

 

-fin

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Sealcat for the original prompt of a merman Loki and a winged Tony who meet when they are young, become friends, and eventually lovers. I hope you enjoyed it!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Their First Meeting](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10641711) by [Sealcat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sealcat/pseuds/Sealcat)




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